The Hindu : We want a different journalism: M.V. Kamath

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 13, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

We want a different journalism: M.V. Kamath

By Our Special Correspondent

KOCHI, FEB. 12. The senior journalist and author, M.V. Kamath, feels that many newspapers in the country are drugging the readers with irrelevant news.

A sizeable chunk of the news carried by these papers had no relevance to the people's lives at all. They had forgotten their social responsibility and the fundamental duty of the Press, Mr. Kamath said in his talk on `Relevance of media in a knowledge society' at a media seminar organised here on Thursday by Sree Sanakara College, Kalady.

He said a section of the Press considered the readers as morons and hence was dishing out irrelevant fare everyday. They were doing this on the pretext that the readers wanted to read only such things. But the fact was that by dishing out irrelevant news, these newspapers had been drugging the readers and getting them addicted.

He said the media had lost a vision and sense of purpose after Independence. Now, the bottomline was the main vision. ``They sell newspapers as a commodity, like selling cashewnut,'' Mr. Kamath remarked. ``This is a frightening situation,'' he added.

Mr. Kamath, however, said The Hindu and the Deccan Herald were exceptions to the general trend. They were responsible papers providing people with an objective account of what is happening in the country. He said the media should aim at unifying the people of the country. ``We want a different journalism,'' he said.

M.K. Das, former Kerala editor of The New Indian Express, and Thomas Jacob, associate editor of the Malayala Manorama, moderated the sessions.

Harish Khare of The Hindu said that newspapers should function as a public trust to win over the support of the people and this was amply proved by recent events in the media. Media did not take upon itself the role of a non-governmental organisation and neither was it monolithic. "Newspapers, after all, are a commercial enterprise'' and should be run professionally to effectively fulfil its role as a communicator. As long as the media had clarity, it could face any challenges, whether it came in the form of corporatisation, commercialsation or convergence.

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